TOKYO, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TIME has named Tadashi Yanai, Chairman, President & CEO of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., to the 2013 TIME 100, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes appear in the April 29 issue of TIME, available on newsstands and tablets on Friday, April 19, and now at http://time100.time.com/.

Commenting on the recognition, Tadashi Yanai said, "I am pleased to have been named among this list of prestigious individuals, and wish to thank TIME for having included me this year. Fast Retailing and UNIQLO aim to positively impact the lives of people everywhere and change our world for the better, through the clothing that we produce. We are serious about our commitment, and it requires substantial influence. I believe that TIME's acknowledgement is a reflection that as a company we are moving in the right direction."

The list, now in its tenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world's most influential individuals. As TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel has said of the list in the past, "The TIME 100 is not a list of the most powerful people in the world. It's not a list of the smartest people in the world. It's a list of the most influential people in the world. They're scientists. They're thinkers. They're philosophers. They're leaders. They're icons. They're artists. They're visionaries. People who are using their ideas, their visions, their actions to transform the world and have an effect on a multitude of people."

Tadashi Yanai is Chairman, President & CEO of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., the leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and UNIQLO. Fast Retailing is currently the world's fourth largest apparel retail company, with global sales of approximately JPY 928 billion (approximately US$ 9.5 billion) for the 2012 fiscal year ending August 31, 2012, and UNIQLO is Japan's leading specialty retailer. With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, the company is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere.

Mr. Yanai started with a single UNIQLO store in Hiroshima in 1984, building this to more than 1,200 UNIQLO stores today across 13 markets worldwide, including Japan, mainland China, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and U.S. The newest market to welcome UNIQLO during summer 2013 is Indonesia.

Born February 7, 1949 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, Mr. Yanai graduated from Tokyo's Waseda University in March 1971, with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Economics.